An operative of the Anti Terrorism Squad (Police Special Forces)pressing on to his target

6 November, 2012
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP)

Police in Nigeria say gunmen attacked a major police station near the country’s capital that is holding members of a radical Islamist sect, freeing some prisoners.

A statement confirmed an attack happened early Monday morning at the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad station near
Abuja. Federal police spokesman Frank
Mba said the gunmen’s assault allowed
some 30 prisoners to escape. Mba said 25 had already been recaptured. That station is holding suspected members of the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

Mba denied any Boko Haram members escaped in the attack, though security officials routinely downplay such attacks.

Boko Haram is blamed for killing more
than 760 people this year alone. The
attack Monday comes after suicide
bombings at a church at a military base
Sunday killed at least 11.

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About beegeagle

BEEG EAGLE -perspectives of an opinionated Nigerian male with a keen interest in Geopolitics, Defence and Strategic Studies

Dont expect any kudos or congratulations from any blogger for recapturing 25 suspects ! this is very typical of Nigeria poor planning, implementation and execution of an assignment.
Why hold such high profile suspect in this part of the country ? The country is wide, huge and has very many holding cells scattered across the country and it has been suggested times without numbers that such suspects should be transferred to other parts of the country or is there a collaboration somewhere ?

Only 25, why not the full 30 of them. It is always the police, all the time the police. Keep making the same silly mistake over and over again. This is the same police that has suffered by far more casualties of all the security agencies battling terrorism, yet they simply do not want to learn from their many shortcomings.

The FG need to convert an offshore marine police or naval outpost in the Niger Delta to a Boko Haram detention centre. Call it divide and rule tactics but the consequences of allowing these suicidal monsters to escape into any community would be devastating.

The big idea is that, in the unlikely event that terrorists somehow manage to escape in a part of the country where, over a 200 mile radius, the creeks and waterways are crawling with JTF gunboat crews…not to mention bunkerers and pirates who feel peeved at the savagery of Boko Haram and would have them undone for free, escapee terror suspects are almost certainly going to be fished out before they get very far.

It gets worse for them. In the Niger Delta region, they are going to stick out like sore thumbs would be picked out from any crowd.

Similar considerations probably underpinned the IBB regime’s decision, while it held sway from Lagos, to detain some ‘troublemakers’ such as the immortal Gani Fawehinmi in prisons located as far away as Gashua, 1500km by road from Lagos in a northeasterly direction. The idea was – no hiding place for a Yorubaman in the Hausa/Kanuri/Shuwa Arab axis. Flee northwards and you would be in the desert straddling the Nigeria-Niger frontier.

That same Machiavellian calculation needs to be dusted up for CTCOIN operations. Move them to some offshore facility in the Niger Delta – the naval FOBs Formoso and Escravos seem to be the most ideal places. Dig a trench around the place and electrify the fence.

I concur in part and differ also in part to this proposal, We should not revive the culture of isolated Gulags in this issue, BokoHaram is already getting enough sympathy from foreign press arising from alleged human right abuses of the military. Creating a central isolated facility would give resemblance of a torture /concentration camp. Considering the fact that our military and MOD have a terrible PR culture would even make things difficult. We would never be able to defend it PR wise like US did with Guantanamo bay and it would further give some form of credence too the right abuse thing.

A simpler solution is to do it individual wise,once a Boko guy is apprehended, arranged for him to be detained in regular facilities (not specialized) in Enugu,Ibadan,Portharcourt,Calabar with no noise making involved, arrange for extra security of a some Mopols + soldiers and APCs for these facilities. Only SSS should have the details of who is detained where and it will be impossible to setup an operation to free somebody who you don’t even know his whereabouts.

I believe the way out of this problem is to relocate them to the South East and South South CALABAR and Enugu come to mind . The F.G. should feel less constrained by what the Amnesty International thinks. This is an entirely INTERNAL SECURITY issue .Provided the prison meets the minimum standards of the Geneva convention on Human rights that is all that should be paramount.
America has their super max PRISON in DENVER Colorado where the most heinous of criminals are kept . Ditto Britain who have their own MAXIMUM security prison . The F.G. would be wise to build one from scratch. That would isolate and penalize severely people who think it is okay to kill people praying in a mosque or church.This is the real deterrence.
The F.G. must learn to constantly in a very sterile disciplined approach to always act from a position of strength , knowing their enemy, demystifying their enemy, and ultimately destroying their enemy.

Still can’t stop thinking about this attack. Why did the police not get their choppers in the air, at least to monitor the terrorist operation and their escape routes? If their choppers were out, why didn’t they call for support from the military – army, or airforce or from other mobile units near by while this thing raged on? Information about this attack says the SARS building didn’t suffer any serious damage, so how did boko haram get into the building?, how were they able to free 30 suspects? its inconsequential whether those freed were boko haram suspects or just armed robbery suspects? How where they able to gain entrance into the building? This same building I know has 2 APCs standing guard at the gates, what was the role of these APCs during the ensuing melee? its not just about buying equipment and stationing it in front of a building or by some street corner, how are they deployed when the need arises?
Possibility of internal collaborators? ?
Many questions.

Are you talking about the Police that recruited and sent a one-eyed man to the training school in Kano?
The Police that where a DSP can wear a bathroom slippers (flip flop) carry gun and stand on Lagos Ibadan express way?
A Police Force where the lifespan of a Toyota Hilux is 3 months?
A Police force full of ex-convicts?
A police where trainees carry buckets, knocking on the doors of residents of Mobolaji Bank Anthony begging for water because there was no water in the college?
This ill-trained, ill-equiped, ill-manned, ill-motivated, ill-everything….

Please spare me…

We should do what Ukraine did some years ago, sack the undesirable/unqualified one and recruit afresh.

PR or No PR, FG should build an Alcatraz for thesse murderers as suggested by Beeg. They are the dregs of the Earth.